


Halfhearted

by RobronSugdenDingle



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Alternate Universe - Parents, Attempted Kidnapping, Break Up, Cheating, Custody Arrangements, Custody Battle, Divorce, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Kidnapping, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-31 03:28:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19417549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobronSugdenDingle/pseuds/RobronSugdenDingle
Summary: Prequel to Wholehearted. This fic is purely about their break up, from secret meetings to hotel trips and then the bitter taste of custody battles and divorce papers.





	Halfhearted

**Author's Note:**

> Had to write how they broke up. For once...Aaron's in the wrong...

"Robert, how the hell could you have a meeting at seven? Who demands meetings at seven at night?"  
  
Robert sighed again. He had already told Aaron the exact answer over and over but he still didn't seem to be getting it through his thick skull.  
  
"I told you. He's a night owl. He works during the night, gets more stuff done that way. It's shady stuff, but it works well for us"  
  
Aaron grabbed a cushion from the couch and played with the fabric corners. He pulled at the zip until Robert thrusted the baby monitor in Aaron's face and wiggled it.  
  
"Sophias crying"  
  
"I know"   
  
And with that said, Robert went out the door, shutting it as quietly as he could and Aaron went upstairs to check on Sophia. She was wailing and tossing her head from side to side, her dummy beside her ear. Aaron moved the dummy over to her mouth where she finally took it in her mouth and stopped crying right away.  
  
Aaron looked at the clock hung up on her room wall and sighed. Seven at night, he just couldn't get his head around it. And this was the sixth meeting, not that he was counting or anything, that was held at night rather than in the morning.   
  
Last time Robert had meetings like this...  
  
No...surely not...  
  
.........  
  
"Sophias asleep, Sebs asleep...we have plenty of time for us...hmm?"  
  
Robert leaned in for a kiss only for Aaron to move his head to the side with closed eyes. He frowned a little and looked at Aaron.  
  
"Aaron? What is it?"  
  
"Nothing...just...just think it's weird to have meetings at night is all..."  
  
Robert sat up on the couch and frowned even more.  
  
"I'm sorry?"  
  
"Nevermind. Forget i said anything..."  
  
"No. No go on, cause I think I can see where this is going!"  
  
"Well you tell me then!"  
  
Robert huffed and took out his phone.  
  
"You clearly don't believe I was at this meeting tonight do you? Here, read it. What time was that?"  
  
Robert showed his husband a picture of him shaking the clients hand. The client had put his company on Facebook to help promote it and sure enough, Robert was tagged in it.   
  
"Still don't believe me?"  
  
"Well you can't blame me!"  
  
"Aaron I swear to-if you seriously give me another repeat of your crazy jealousy then-"  
  
"Then what?!"  
  
"Then I think I'm going to go insane! Don't you remember what happened last time this happened?! You nearly beat someone up to death! Prison straight afterwards, remember?!"  
  
Aaron only scowled at Robert before getting up and walked upstairs to head to bed. He pulled back the covers when Robert walked in and sighed.  
  
"I'm sorry...It's just...we've got so many loans to pay back and I'd rather pay them back so we've got a home for Sophia and Seb to live in...you know? So if that means meetings at night...you're gonna have to handle that..."  
  
"I know..."  
  
"Yeah? I just...I mean we're already a month behind rent..."  
  
"I said I know Robert. I'm not happy about your meetings at night but...I'm just gonna have to get used to it aren't I?"  
  
Robert sighed and watched Aaron strip himself so he could change into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and got into bed. He changed himself and got in beside him, a hand resting on Aaron's hip.  
  
Wordlessly, they both fell asleep right away.  
  
........  
  
"Hiya! No Aaron with you?"  
  
Robert watched Victoria stroke Sophias sleeping face and then coo over at her before finally leaving her alone.  
  
"Robert?"  
  
"Oh. He's at the scrapyard actually. Sebs with Moira and I am exhausted with this little one"  
  
"Yeah you look it"   
  
"Thanks for the vote of self confidence"   
  
"It's what I do best. Do you wanna come over then? For a chat? I could put her in a dress I got her?"  
  
Robert rolled his eyes, knew that Victoria had already gone out of her way to become the best auntie in the world and she looped her arm in his and began nudging them both in her house direction.  
  
She made them tea, got out a couple of chocolate bourbons and left Annie alone to sleep in the fancy Victorian looking pram. She had tried lifting her out, but Annie began screaming right away because she was disturbed, probably her beauty nap. She was already so much like Aaron.   
  
"Well? Go on then"   
  
"What?"  
  
"Earlier...when you mentioned your husbands name, you...didn't seem happy?"  
  
"It's nothing. Just a bump in the road is all"   
  
Victoria nodded and dipped a biscuit in her tea, took a large bite so there was a tiny piece on the end left.  
  
"And you're sure it's just a bump?"  
  
"He thinks I'm cheating on him again. Well, he didn't say that, but he didn't believe me when I said I was at a meeting last night. Because I told him that the meetings are gonna be late..."  
  
Victoria sighed and folded her hands together after eating the rest of her biscuit.  
  
"Maybe...he's not getting enough sleep? I mean, you've got a four year old and a five month old baby, you're both bound to get snappy at times"  
  
"I think he's getting bored of me..."  
  
"As I said. It's just both of yous being tired. Why don't yous book a hotel over the weekend? Rekindle...whatever it is. You know, start the love again?"  
  
Robert thought about it. A hotel trip. Sounded perfect actually.  
  
.......  
  
They were halfway through dinner when Robert remembered his announcement.   
  
"Oh! That reminds me, can you cancel all your plans on Saturday and Sunday"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because...I've booked us somewhere. Somewhere nice. Well, on a budget obviously"  
  
"Yeah. Sounds good"   
  
...........  
  
The first night in a hotel was pretty shit. Robert managed to be extra lucky this time because he managed to book the hotel where there was a free drink for all party in the main room. Apparently someone cancelled the wedding and they had cheap booze that they wouldn't dare sell.  
  
"Tell you what, couple more drinks and we'll head back up? There's a shower, bath even?"  
  
Aaron was...unusually quiet during this entire time. He didn't lean in to Roberts kiss on the cheek and he only had another two champagne flute glasses and frowned at Robert.  
  
"You can head up if you want. I'm fine being here"  
  
"Oh. I'll just stay here too then"   
  
"Robert, we don't need to be joined at the hip you know"   
  
"Wh-the point of this trip was for us to become closer!"  
  
Aaron rolled his eyes, reached out to grab another glass when Robert grabbed his wrist and shook his head at the passing by waiter.   
  
"Ah! What you doing?!"  
  
"Stopping you from getting drunk so we can actually talk!"  
  
"Oh now you wanna talk?! Seems everytime we so much have a conversation, you wanna take it in the bedroom!"  
  
"What the hell is wrong with you?!"  
  
Aaron opened his mouth to say something when Robert tugged his arm and walked them both out of the room. People were beginning to stare.  
  
"There's nothing wrong with me!"  
  
"You've been acting all pissy when we left!"  
  
"You're the one throwing a tantrum because I don't wanna have sex with you!"  
  
Robert pinched the top of his nose and sighed loudly. He took a deep breath and exhaled.  
  
"You know...that you can talk to me. About anything...right?"  
  
"Yeah? I know, you're just..."  
  
"Just what?"  
  
"Nevermind"   
  
"Aaron-"  
  
"You're suffocating me! There! You're just-every single time I turn around, you're right there in my face!"  
  
Robert scoffed before huffing and then walked to the lift.  
  
"Where you going?"  
  
"To pack my stuff and I'm heading home. I get us a trip together because we're hardly talking and now on this trip together, you want me to leave you alone. So fine, I'll do that. Enjoy sleeping alone"   
  
Aaron only watched Robert pack his things when they got in the room and then watched him leave. He watched him go down in the lift and leave the building and get in his car and drive off.  
  
Aaron only went back to the stupid party, ignoring everyone else's stares, probably wondering where his husband had gone. He woke up the next morning with an arm draped over his side and a leg thrown over his hips. He sleepily turned around to lightly kiss him and when his hand felt a slightly scruffy chin, Aaron pulled back and opened his eyes to get a proper look.  
  
Robert didn't have a scruffy chin...and this wasn't Robert.  
  
And they were both...yep, definitely naked...  
  
............  
  
Monday came around, three in the afternoon was when Aaron returned from the hotel and Robert was in the middle of feeding Sophia. He looked exhausted, probably from looking after two kids on his own.  
  
"Hi..."  
  
"Enjoy your hotel then? Didn't actually expect you to stay there..."  
  
"You paid for it...didn't wanna waste your money"   
  
"Aaron, I wasn't starting, I'm just-"  
  
Aaron kissed Sophias head, ruffled Sebs hair and went upstairs.  
  
.........  
  
It went on and on like that for a month and a half. Robert honestly thought the older he got, the more stupid his brain decided to be. He noticed his husband spending more time at the scrapyard, spending less time with the kids and on top of that, the pair had forgotten their own wedding anniversary. The surrogacy loans were finally paid off, but Robert had a couple more meetings to go to.   
  
He wasn't exactly comfortable having his meeting in a gay bar, but this guy had a frequently new business that was skyrocketing high in a very fast time. He had on glitter nail polish and Robert briefly remembered something his dad had told him when he was younger. If he ever got any colour of nail polish on his nails, never to come back.  
  
He was listening to the guy talk when he spotted a familiar guy come out of the toilets and sit down in a booth with another guy. Sorry, his husband sitting beside another guy.   
  
He pretended to listen to the client talk, but truth was, he was busy watching Aaron laugh and have the time of his life. He couldn't remember the last time he made Aaron laugh or smile.  
  
And then he watched the guy lean over and actually kiss his husband! And the worst thing? His husband was kissing back!  
  
He was out of his seat before he knew it, raging over there with stamping feet and he only crossed his arms and waited for a millisecond until Aaron had opened his eyes, his smile disappearing right away and he only stared with wide eyes.   
  
Caught.  
  
"What do you think you're doing?"  
  
Before anyone could move, Robert had grabbed the guy by the shirt, full on dragged him out of the booth and landed a couple of punches before Aaron had dragged him off.   
  
There was a lot of screaming involved.  
  
.......  
  
"Chas. Chas, hi. Just here to get Sophia and Seb"  
  
She looked at Robert weirdly before letting him through and he saw Victoria hold Sophia in her arms and Seb colouring in on the couch.   
  
"Vic. Vic, you need to do me a massive favour. Aaron might want them, you can't let him have them!"  
  
"Wh-Robert calm down! What the hells happened?!"  
  
"Aaron. Cheating. We're done. He might ask to get them, want to use them against me. I need to go! Bye sweetheart. I love you..."  
  
He kissed Sophias head, ruffled Sebs hair with an I love you to him and he left through the back door.   
  
He got in the mill and suddenly, it seemed like everything there wasn't important. Pictures of him and Aaron at their wedding, their first one. Thrown against the wall, smashed into a million pieces. Mugs with coffee stains on the bottom, thrown, smashed and scattered across the floor.  
  
He was glad his kids weren't here to hear his terrible language.   
  
.........  
  
The door opened slowly, Robert watched it open inch by inch by his position. He was sat on the couch, legs crossed, an arm lazily resting on the armrest and he was chewing a fingernail on his left hand.   
  
Aaron shut the door behind him, stopped when his trainers crunched a piece of glass underneath them and he only noticed the smashed items.   
  
"I'm sorry. I...I don't know what to say..."  
  
Robert looked at the floor, stopped chewing his nail and looked up at Aaron.  
  
"You know...it was only a few months ago that we were both standing in that hospital, looking at our little girl...lying there...a new start in our lives..."  
  
Aaron swallowed and Robert shook his head.  
  
"Nothing to say about that? Sounds about right. Fine, I'll ask a question, you answer, should be simple enough. How long? Did you even sleep with him? Regret kissing him?"  
  
Aaron looked away and Robert stood up, half leaned, half sat against the armrest and he kept his arms crossed.  
  
"Aaron, how long? All's I need is a number. How many days?"  
  
"Nearly two..."  
  
Robert sighed in relief until Aaron finished his sentence.  
  
"Months..."  
  
"Months?!"  
  
Aaron nodded and Robert held his head in his hands. He waited for Aaron to continue, quickly end this pain.  
  
"I...it was an accident...at first..."  
  
"You just accidentally slept with some lowlife?!"  
  
"It..it started out like that, yeah!"  
  
"When?! When was the first time you so called accidentally slept with him?! Go on!"  
  
Aaron didn't say anything and Robert did a quick calculation in his head until he shut his eyes and sighed.  
  
"The hotel trip...wasn't it?"  
  
Again, nothing. And it was beginning to seriously irritate Robert. The least he deserved was some answers dammit!  
  
"Aaron? Was. It. The. Hotel? Did you seriously sleep with someone in our bed?!"  
  
"Yes! Yeah, I did! And you know what? I don't regret it! How could I?! You with your apparently secret meetings at night, so you tell me, who were you sleeping with? Hmm?!"  
  
Robert took a step closer and saw Aaron's eyes water. Surely he didn't mean that. He...He didn't regret it?  
  
"I've showed you all of my proof that I wasn't sleeping with anyone. Believe what you like on that one. At least with Rebecca, I regretted it. You know why?! Because I loved you! You! I loved you! Is that it?! You don't love me anymore?!"  
  
Aaron scoffed but wiped his eyes with his jacket sleeve and Robert almost wanted to roll his eyes at that action.  
  
"I do! I just-you know, with him, I actually felt special, you know?! He actually made me feel...different!"  
  
"We're married! We've got a house! We've got two children together! What else do you want?! I'm married to you!"  
  
"I can't help the way I feel!"  
  
"You love him then?!"  
  
"No!"  
  
"Just enjoy sleeping with him?!"  
  
Aaron shook his head and opened his mouth to say something when Robert had grabbed another mug and threw it at a wall in anger again. He let out a shout of mixed rage and frustration and he could only think about how he had made people feel like this in the past.   
  
"Naive! I'm so naive! I feel like such an idiot! Two months?! You've slept with a guy behind my back for two months!"  
  
Aaron hiccupped out a small sob and he wiped his nose with his jacket sleeve.   
  
"I told you, I can't help how I feel...how I felt...!"  
  
Robert took a couple of large steps over towards Aaron, grabbed the front of his jacket tightly and pushed him against the wall.   
  
"Oh how you feel! It's always about how you feel! Always a sorry! Always playing the victim and ugh!"  
  
He pushed himself off of Aaron to run a hand through his hair, stressed to the max and he let out another frustrated groan. Aaron started crying again and Robert pointed at the door.  
  
"I want you out"   
  
"No. Wait. Hang o-"  
  
"I want you out now! You don't live here anymore!"  
  
With that said, Robert pulled the door open, motioned with his hand for Aaron to leave and when Aaron didn't move a muscle, Robert took matters into his own hand. He grabbed Aaron and immediately started tugging him out of the building. He got him out into the landing, just before the door that led to the outside and Aaron resisted even harder.  
  
"Robert! Please! I'm sorry!"  
  
"Yeah? Say that to me when the divorce papers are through!"  
  
He managed to pry the door open and shoved Aaron out so hard, he tripped over his feet and landed on the gravel. He turned around, still sitting on the gravel and Robert gave him a hard glare. He didn't even realise he was so red in the face with anger.  
  
"Oh and by the way, I'm getting the kids!"  
  
Aaron shot up off his knees then and raced to reach the closing door only to hit against a locked one. Robert went inside the house, locked the front door and sat on the floor with his back against the door. Finally, with his anger gone, he started crying into his hands. He was sure a piece of glass was cutting his trousers but he couldn't care at the moment.  
  
.........  
  
"Aaron...it's been a week...are you sure he won't take you back?"  
  
Aaron, who sat at the small kitchen table, hands clasped together and his thumbs resting on his lips, shook his head and sighed.  
  
"No. I've messed things up too bad..."  
  
Chas sighed and kissed her son's head. She sat down beside him and reached up to hold his hands in hers.   
  
"It's just a bump in the road..."  
  
"Mum, I don't think it is...he won't even let me see Seb or Sophia. He's not answering his phone...Victoria's pissed off with me obviously..."  
  
"You really wanna see Seb and Sophia that much?"  
  
Aaron nodded before raising an eyebrow with a frown and he removed his hands from his mother's.  
  
"Why do you sound so surprised?"  
  
"Well, it's just that...you always seemed to pass them off to me and Paddy to look after while all this time, you were...with that bloke..."  
  
Aaron said nothing, just stood up and walked upstairs. Either back to bed in the spare room or taking a shower.  
  
.......  
  
A couple of weeks later, Robert had surprise meeting and asked Victoria to look after Sophia and Seb for an hour max. She agreed happily and took Seb and Sophia back to hers. He had spotted Aaron on his way to the meeting and Aaron had only sent him a glare and a scoff.  
  
"And you said I pawned them off every chance I could!"  
  
"I've got a meeting for an hour not that it's any of your business! You know, someone's gotta pay for a decent lawyer for custody. And a divorce"  
  
Aaron shook his head at that and watched Robert walk by to head to his meeting.   
  
.......  
  
Victoria heard the doorbell ring. She answered it and was surprised to see...of all people, Cain Dingle there. He looked worried sick and he coughed.  
  
"Victoria..."  
  
"Cain? What's up? Are you ok?!"  
  
"Yeah! Yeah I'm fine...I just wanted to let you know about Aaron...what he said about just wanting to make things easier for Robert..."  
  
Victoria seemed genuinely interested in that and she listened carefully to Cain Dingle's lies. Meanwhile, through the back door, Aaron had stepped in and put a finger to his lips when Seb nearly opened his mouth to speak. He smiled and Seb put a finger to his own lips, staying quiet. Aaron picked up Sophia in her carseat and walked out, Seb in tow.   
  
It was only when Aaron's car drove off, did Victoria catch a glimpse of an orange jacket, Sebs jacket and she ran in the livingroom. Gone! Both of them!  
  
Cain only shrugged his shoulders.  
  
"He's family..."  
  
Victoria swore at him and slammed the door shut in his face.  
  
.........  
  
"What do you mean they're gone?!"  
  
"I think it was Aaron! Cain distracted me and Aaron snuck in!"  
  
Robert groaned loudly on the phone and agreed to come over straight away.  
  
.......  
  
Three days later, Robert dropped the bombshell on Chas.   
  
"You tell that stupid son of yours to come back with my kids right now, or I'm calling the police, get him arrested for abduction. He's an easy target to get into prison, I'll do it, I will"  
  
Chas nodded purely because she didn't want to see her son back in prison and made the phone call. Exactly five and a half hours later, Aaron was back. He held Sophia in her carseat and Seb held Aaron's free hand before spotting Robert and ran over to hug his dad. Robert hugged him back with a deep smell of his hair because apparently when you turned a parent, one of the instincts you gain is to sniff your child's head like a dog...  
  
Sophia was fast asleep until Robert stepped over and took her out. She started crying right away but soon enough she was fast asleep again, Robert shushing her, kissing her head.  
  
"It's ok...it's ok...you're back now..."  
  
"Well make it sound like I tortured them why don't you"  
  
"You stole them from me!"  
  
"They're my kids too!"  
  
"When it suits you! When was the last time you actually spent some time with them without pawning them off to your mum for a couple of hours?! But then...oh, that wouldn't suit you would it? Because you chose some scumbag over your husband and kids!"  
  
Aaron bit his tongue to not shout, didn't want to upset the kids and he shoved his hands in his pockets and instead, chose the more...pleading option.  
  
"Robert please...I don't wanna lose them..."  
  
"Yeah? Well you've done that already. And it's all your fault"   
  
Robert looked him up and down, scoffed at his own stupidness again, managed to balance Sophia while he pulled off his ring and thrusted it in Aaron's face.  
  
"Here. Take it. Well go on, take it"  
  
"But...but it's-"  
  
"Pawn it, sell it, I don't care. Give it to your new bloke even. Means nothing to me now"   
  
"Wh-you're really doing this then?!"  
  
"Yeah. Yeah, I am"   
  
..........  
  
By the time the Christmas period had come along, the divorce papers had also come along too. Though, as bitter as Robert was about this entire situation, he decided to leave the divorce papers reveal till Christmas day alone.   
  
Victoria was back at the mill watching Seb and Sophia with the doors locked this time and she played with Seb who was playing with his Christmas presents. Sophia was happily messing about with a big thick bit of tinsel.  
  
Robert stepped in the pub and spotted Aaron right away, sitting at the bar with a pint and laughing with his Mum and Paddy. Paddy noticed Robert first and tapped Aaron's shoulder to show him that Robert was there. Chas sighed.  
  
"Robert, love, if you're just here to cause trouble..."  
  
"I'm not. Look, it's just a Christmas card. A gift, from me and the kids"   
  
Aaron mumbled a thanks and opened the envelope, only...it wasn't much of a card...more of...  
  
He read it, his eyes watered and he tried to toss it towards Robert but it ended up on the floor and Robert, trying to aim to be as spiteful as possible, gave him a roll of his eyes.   
  
"Merry fucking Christmas!"  
  
Tracy picked up the papers off the floor and gasped and accidentally, with her loud gob, revealed what they were.  
  
"Divorce papers!"  
  
Robert left the pub and Aaron stormed through to the back, Christmas day officially ruined.  
  
.........  
  
They were both in suits when they went to court, apparently Aaron had spent most of his money on an expensive lawyer to make sure he did as good as he could to get the kids. Robert had a couple of cards already if things got messy, like, really messy.  
  
Robert explained how he had a stable job, worked from home most of the time and it had a much higher pay than Aaron's. He had a house to himself, wasn't sharing with his mum and stepdad and actually spent time with the kids.   
  
Aaron, tried at least. He just kept going on and on about how much he loved his kids and the least he wanted to see them was weekends.  
  
Robert counter attacked with a harsh reminder that Aaron had never spent any time with the kids in the first place. Not only was he cheating, but he chose a guy over his kids multiple times. He also abducted them for a week without telling Robert and he was worried sick. Just to rub it in Aaron's face, he mentioned the mental health and how if Aaron was stressed, he took it out on himself.  
  
Long story short, Robert won with the conditions of Aaron seeing them at weekends, Aaron pinned him against a wall and shouted all the swear words in the world.   
  
It was official, they were over.

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts?? Really curious as to how you guys felt about this!


End file.
